JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Online patient education materials (PEMs) are frequently written above the recommended reading level in North America. Poor PEM readability limits the accessibility of medical information to individuals with average to lower literacy levels. Pediatric hospital and association websites have not only been shown to be a preferred source of information among caregivers but have also become a necessity in the COVID-19 pandemic. The readability of Canadian pediatric association websites has not yet been assessed.

Objective:

To determine if the content of patient education material from Canadian pediatric associations is written at a reading level that the majority of Canadians can understand.

Methods:

258 PEMs were extracted from ten Canadian pediatric associations and evaluated for their reading level using ten validated readability scales. Associations underwent a difficult word analysis and cross association comparisons were assessed.

Results:

Online PEMs were identified from three pediatric association websites, where the grade reading level was found to be 8.8 +/– 1.8 for the Caring for Kids website, 9.5 +/– 2.2 for the Pediatric Endocrine Group website and 13.1 +/– 2.1 for the Atlantic Pediatric Society website. The difficulty word analysis identified that (19.9 +/– 6.6)% of words were unfamiliar, with (13.3 +/– 5.3)% and (31.9 +/– 6.1)% words being considered complex (≥3 syllables) and long (≥6 letters) respectively.

Conclusions:

The online PEMs were found to be written above the recommended seventh grade reading level for Canadians. Consideration should be made to create PEMs at an appropriate grade reading level for both patients and their caregivers to encourage health literacy and ultimately promote preventative health behaviours and child health outcomes.